Local Mail Carriers "Stamp Out Hunger"

For the past 18 years, Rhonda Malin, a mail carrier for the Town and Country branch of the U.S. Postal Office, has stood under the same white fluorescent light sorting through hundreds of mail. Six days a week, Malin gets to her office at 7:45 a.m., organizes her deliveries for the 462 addresses in her route, and spends four to five hours on the street. Work can be repetitive. Saturday, however, the calendar tucked in her office had a letter “F” marking the date, reminding her of the 19th annual “Stamp Out Hunger” food drive, sponsored by the National Association of Letter Carriers.

The food drive is one of the largest in the nation, said Kari Bowling, also a mail carrier, who organizes the drive at the Town and Country Post Office. All the food collected on this day goes to the St. Louis Area Food Bank, which oversees over 500 local food pantries.

“With the economy, pantries are bare,” Bowling said. “They were bare in January and then with the devastation that's just happened around the airport area, this is something that's really important.”

The event was made possible thanks to the carriers who donated their time and effort to pick up and sort the food left by residents in front of their mailboxes Saturday morning.

“It's truly the carriers that make this a success,” said Dana Iannazzo, manager of the post office located at Town and Country Commons. “It's their hard work. It's them willing to give the extra effort, even in the rain. They will be busting their butts. They will be all soaking wet. The success of it is strictly the carriers' doing.”

As  Saturday progressed, Malin, along with other carriers, filled their postal trucks with bags of canned goods, instant pasta and other edibles left by residents along their routes. By noon, approximately two hours into Malin’s route, the back of her truck was half-way filled with food.

Bowling said usually the people around the area — Town and Country and Chesterfield — were very generous. Last year, this branch of the post  office collected nearly 17,000 pounds of food.

“We are very fortunate out here,” Bowling said. “People out here really, really give.”

And they did.

After the carriers arrived back at the post office around 4 p.m., girl scouts, postal workers and other volunteers sorted and put away the donations, filling up a 48-foot tractor trailer with food.

“This is one of the biggest fundraisers of the year,” said Dan Hruby, with the NALC. “We will fill most of the food banks in St. Louis.”

Bowling said every year she dreads the extra work that the food drive requires, until she sees the truck filled with the food.

“You see all this stuff out there and you think, 'God I don't want to do this next year. I am taking the day off’,” Bowling said. “And then you see the whole accomplishment when you are done, and when I post the figures and tell everybody how much we collected, you feel great. You feel it's worth it.”

The official numbers of food collected were not available yet this weekend, however the Town and Country post office alone collected over 900 large boxes filled with food.

As she collected the last bags of food in her route, Malin said when she gets tired she thinks back and remembers why participating in this food drive is so important. Malin said about 20 years ago, she, her husband and four children, were in a very tough economic situation, “down to the very last can of peas.” One day, however, a friend showed up at her door with several bags filled with food for her and her family.

“I appreciated it so much at the time,” Malin said as she held some tears. “It was so nice for her to help us out, and she said at that time, ‘all I ask is that you do it to somebody else when and if you are ever in the position help somebody else.’ So here I am.”